June 2017

Chiropractic Care for Text Neck Syndrome

Are you addicted to your smartphone? If so, you may be due for a visit to the chiropractor. That’s because there is a new, silent epidemic known as “text neck” that is becoming increasingly more prevalent among people everywhere that are simply straining the neck during smart phone use.

What is “text neck” and is it serious? Not only is this an epidemic, but it could wreck your spine. Take a closer look at what many chiropractors are adding to their list of physical ailments to treat and why you need to visit your chiropractor now before it’s too late.

What is Text Neck

A new term that may start to come up in your conversations this year is “text neck,” a phrase to refer to the burden on the spine from keeping the neck bent forward and down on a regular basis for use of a smart device.

Since people are on their phones for hours and hours each day, it’s putting the neck and spine at a 15-60 degree angle with the weight of the human head taking effect on the cervical spine. Text neck is a health condition affecting more and more as many choose to hunch over to text, navigate the web, watch videos, and more on their smart devices for several minutes and even hours at a time.

The modern day Forward Head Posture

While text neck is a relatively new term, it does take a play on an older health condition known as Forward Head Posture. Texting has only been around for a dozen or so years, while Forward Head Posture, or FHP, was the original health condition describing this positioning of the head forward from the center of the shoulders causing the head to shift the body’s gravity and cause serious health conditions. Being a completely preventable condition doesn’t keep many from getting it, since people are often attached to their phones for their work and personal lives.

Preventing and treating Text Neck

With proper exercise and awareness of your posture, you can prevent and correct text neck from happening to you. It’s important to keep your spine and posture aligned regularly, which means that when it’s time to use your smart device, you need to be aware of your posture and positioning of your body. With the right exercises and techniques to hold your device properly, you can limit the strain on your neck and spine.

Not only can text neck cause pain to the neck, shoulders, and spine, but it could lead to other conditions including migraine and disc herniation. This is why it’s more important than ever to avoid hunching over and keeping your posture nice and straight, while paying a visit to the chiropractor to get adjustments and realigned.

Be sure to hold your phone at eye level going forward, otherwise you could end up with a spine curvature, pain, and other side effects. Taking a break from texting or navigating and relying on a laptop or browsing by voice-activated Bluetooth technology will allow you to better focus on what you’re doing, keep your body safe from poor posture, and make it easier to connect with less disruption to your daily life.

If you’re experiencing tightness or discomfort around your neck, shoulders, and upper back, it may be a sign that you are experiencing the effects of Text Neck that your chiropractor will need to help you correct. Improve your posture going forward so that you can enjoy the perks of technology in your hands without harming your body in order to do so.

Chiropractic Care for Treating Disc Problems

Do you suffer with disc problems that are causing pain in your spine and other areas? Disc problems can really burden the sufferer between the stiffness in the back, the pain in different areas, and the tingling and weakness affecting the nerves. Chiropractors are constantly seeing people needing treatment for disc herniation and bulging disc problems. Take a look at what it means to have a disc problem and how chiropractors are treating them.

What do spinal discs do?

Spinal discs are those spongy pads that live on the spinal column between your vertebrae. These discs are flat, sensitive, circular capsules only about an inch in diameter and covered in a tougher outer membrane. They are your spine’s shock absorbers during movement and they work to hold the spine in place.

While these sacs are only fluid-filled sacs in childhood, they begin to solidify into adulthood in which the bloody supply stops so that the inner material can harden. Adults are more prone to disc injuries and degeneration since discs harden with age and become like hard rubber by middle age.

Types of disc problems

Some of the disc problems people sometimes encounter are slipped discs or bulging discus. A herniated disc is a bulging disc that occurs when fluid pushes out through a crack in the exterior. This can cause pain or numbness to the nearby nerves in your arm or leg, but in some cases, no symptoms occur from the herniated disc.

If you get a herniated disc, you will either have a prolapse or a protrusion. A protrusion means that the disc is bulging and pushing it out of shape while a prolapsed disc is one that bulges out so much that it becomes separated from the other discs. A severe prolapsed disc could be bad enough to affect daily activities like sitting, standing, and walking.

Symptoms and treatment

Do you have pain in your leg, buttock, or foot? Do you find it painful to do certain movements in your arm, neck, or shoulder? Is your spine stiff or tender? Do you have unexplained numbness, weakness, or tingling in certain body parties? These are all signs and symptoms of disc issues in your spine.

Chiropractic can definitely help you with this problem. There are safe ways to treat bulging or herniated discs. Your chiropractor will likely take digital images and ask about your history to see what type of issue may be occurring and how to treat it.

If you are suffering from a disc problem, talk to us right away so that you can get your spine issues corrected and get back to your daily routines again.

How Clothing and Shoes Might be Hurting You

There are millions of things in this world that could harm you every day, but the least thing you’d probably guess is that your clothes would be one of them. Believe it or not, your clothing and shoes are more likely to hurt you than anything else, seeing that improper clothing is on your body all day long, all throughout the week.

You probably had your suspicions that your high heel pain wasn’t great for your feet and that the oversized purse was harming your shoulders. Take a look at these clothing items and more that you may not have suspected are hurting you every day.

Your favorite pair of jeans

You love rocking a pair of skinny jeans on a night out in the city or when you want to dress up for a shopping excursion. Did you know that those skinny jeans, while looking great, are actually restricting your hips and your knees from total movement?

While you’ve probably already noticed some restriction, over time this can change the way we hold our bodies and even the way we walk. In the long-term, you’ll end up with a change on posture in movement which puts unfamiliar pressure on your joints that will decrease your shock absorption. This will lead to more wear and tear on your joints.

Those high heels you wear to work

While you want to look professional and feel confident at work, those high heels you are wearing to the office each day are horrible for your body. With the feet’s normal function to be a shock absorber for the skeleton, weight distribution is off when the high heels force the body’s weight to be on the balls of the feet. Your normal balance is off, your nerves and bones will get damaged, and your hips will misalign.

Heavy jewelry will cause a strain

You love that beautiful necklace you were gifted at your last birthday, but have you noticed the weight of it is straining your body? When you wear bulky, heavy, chunky jewelry, you end up with weight on the back of your neck and even your shoulders, which leads to neck and shoulder strain, posture issues, and even headaches. Opt for dainty pieces or lightweight jewelry.

Your favorite oversized purse

Who doesn’t love a huge bag that you can just throw anything in to? An oversized purse, often referred to as a Mary Poppins bag, is likely to become really heavy when overstuffed thanks to all the extra room inside. When it becomes too heavy, your favorite shoulder for carrying purses will end up imbalanced and misaligned, while pulling your strained neck and shoulders.

Shoes and coats

Lastly, be sure to watch out for lesser known clothing and shoe options that harm the body. Backless shoes are really popular this time of year, but your balance will have to work harder without support of the back of the shoe.

Your legs and lower back may feel strained with a backless shoe this spring and summer. When the weather cools down and it’s time to choose a warm coat, watch out for hooded coats with the heavy fur that will just end up restricting movement and weighing down your neck, back, and shoulders.

Don’t let your clothing choices harm your body when you have so many other things to think about in the day. Avoid these no-no’s next time you shop, and talk to us about getting an adjustment if you’ve already been doing these things. Your body will thank you for smarter clothing choices and preventative care.